Oh, Dear,

Sense of humour failure all round.

A Christmas-themed board game in which Santa and Jesus “go-head-to-head” has been dubbed “shocking and blasphemous” with calls for it to be banned from Amazon.

You’ve got to smile at the ingenuity of those coming up with the idea and getting it to market. But, of course, the purse-lipped, lemon-sucking, humourless religious fanatics can’t handle it.

Giving the game one star out of five, Amazon reviewer Robert H described it as “[a]bsolutely shocking and blasphemous” and “[w]holly unacceptable and offensive”.

Well, Robert H, here’s a suggestion – it might seem a little off the wall, but you might want to try it…. Don’t buy it. How’s that for a solution? Oh, that’s right, because it is shocking and blasphemous and wholly unacceptable to you, you think everyone else should be bound by your beliefs and things should be banned because you don’t like them. Amazon really need to stick to their guns here and ignore the likes of Robert H. We aren’t all Christians and some of us have a sense of humour. Robert H can stick his thin skin where the sun don’t shine.

Another reviewer said: “I find it in the poorest of taste and offensive. Jesus (complete with nail holes in Hands) and Santa with their followers/ friends fighting over a Christmas tree. how upsetting!… Take it out Amazon.”

All I can say, is that you must be a very sensitive little snowflake if you are that easily upset – however, see my advice to your equally thin-skinned fellow reviewer above – don’t buy it. Problem solved.

Danny Webster, spokesperson for the Evangelical Alliance, told the BBC he has a problem with the Santa vs Jesus game as “it trivialises Christian belief and equates them both as fictional characters”.

Er… Yes? And?

One commenter said: “I am a Christian and am not the least offended by anything I saw.

“Take it in the spirit it is meant to be played.”

Precisely.

9 Comments

  1. “… he has a problem with the Santa vs Jesus game as “it trivialises Christian belief and equates them both as fictional characters”.”

    Actually, Jesus and Santa are on a fairly even footing in this respect. Both characters are broadly believed to be based on an actual historical living person. However, both have a persona that is mostly based on legends.

  2. I have received some spam in my inbox from someone called Poppy Jacobs offering to write articles for my website. I don’t have a website. Apparently she is working with Longrider. I don’t know whether this is any problem for you but I thought I would let you know.

  3. “Aren’t we forgetting the true meaning of this day – the birth of Santa?” — Bart Simpson

  4. … Jesus (complete with nail holes in Hands)…

    Ha! I actually laughed out loud when I read that! The minutiae are so important, are they not? Presumably had he not had the nail holes it would have been less ‘offensive’.

    • On a physicial note, the holes would have been in the hands. There would not have been enough muscle, bone and tissue to support a human being. The Romans used to crucify people by putting the nails through the wrists. Whilst being capable of supporting a body, it would also put enough pressure on the lungs that the person on the cross would die either from suffocation or drowning (being unable to breathe enough to expel the moisture from the lungs). Thoughtful, as well as inventive, those Romans.
      Santa, meanwhile, risks death from diabetes and gall stones from all that gingerbread and mincepies.

  5. A further thought on this relates to the use of the word ‘blasphemous’. Since blasphemy is no longer considered a crime in the UK I find the use of the word mildly interesting. Basically, those who take a particular religion seriously tend to be really sensitive about it being mocked. So much so that they believe that such mockery should be a crime. But in reality land, one religion is just as ridiculous as another, each religion blasphemes all of the others just by existing and, to any sane person, ridicule is the obvious response to all of them. My take on it is this, if you don’t want people to laugh at your beliefs, don’t have funny beliefs.

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